Watch any prime time TV series and I bet you will find some sort of product placement. TV shows are using product placement in order to supplement commercials, where the revenue has been declining over the last few years.
With the invention of the DVR and sites such as Hulu, viewers no longer feel the need to spend their precious time on commercials. Those who do not use DVRs take commercial breaks as time to go to the bathroom, catch up on Twitter or make something to eat.
Advertisers needed to get creative in order for their products to be seen. The solution…camouflage their products in almost every show, and most people do not even realize it happens.
Can a TV show in this day and age have an episode, much less a series without product placement? Any phone call, car ride or dinner table scene has the potential for product placement. Producers attempt to disguise the product logos, not for the purpose of hiding the product, but rather to make what they are doing less obvious. This can manifest itself by putting a pear instead of an apple for a Mac, or tweaking a car emblem. In reality though, most Americans will realize which products are being placed, but not feel ambushed with an advertisement during their favorite TV show.
The natural first question is does it actually work? Does having a product featured on a TV show really increase revenue?
After doing some digging I came to the realization that no one really knows if it works. The growth of product placement is still occurring, and there has not been enough time for (accurate) data to be collected and processed. If marketers know how well it works, they are not sharing.
Some obvious points can be related back to McLuhan, “the medium is the message.”
If you place a laptop on a children’s TV show or a kid’s toy on a teenage soap opera you will not see a good ROI. Logic tells us this. Only time will tell if a properly placed product is an effective tool for boosting revenue.
Sources
http://www.mediaite.com/online/ipad-product-placement-on-modern-family-actually-wasnt-still-angered-fans/
http://www.mushon.com/fall08/nmrs/10/27/traveling-in-product-placement-land/
http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2009/10/product_placements_in_movies_w.php
Friday, January 28, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
Tricked.
I always thought that Twitter was only a social media platform, nothing more and nothing less. That is, until a few days ago. I was doing some light reading on Eonline.com and stumbled upon an article about celebrity tweeters. Celebrities such as Kim Kardashian get paid up to $10,000 PER TWEET. I for one was a little upset. You follow your favorite celebrities on twitter and never know if there are tweeting for real or for money.
Ad.ly is the new social media company behind the celebrity tweets. They claim to “connect consumers to celebrities.” Over 5,000 celebrities and 150 companies use Ad.ly for a paycheck or to enhance a campaign.
Some celebrity tweeters have hundreds of thousands of followers who they influence on a daily basis. Is tweeting for money (without saying it) betraying our trust? I follow the Kardashians on twitter (I’m not going to lie) and after reading the Eonline.com article, I don’t know if their tweets are opinion or money driven.
Some celebrities have started using #ad at the end of their tweets. You may think that they are doing this out of their own goodwill to let their followers know that they are getting paid. Wrong. The Federal Trade Commission recently changed its "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”.
The FTC states that “Celebrities have a duty to disclose their relationships with advertisers when making endorsements outside the context of traditional ads, such as on talk shows or in social media.”
How is the FTC catching the online rule breakers? Well, unless someone is trolling the internet 24/7 not everyone will be caught. Some celebrities are still tweeting like this law is not in place. If they do know they don’t care because the fine is only 11,000 dollars which they can pay back in oh….2 or 3 tweets to their “fans.”
-Sara Alderman
Sources:
How I found out: http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/ask_the_answer_bitch/b160341_do_celebs_get_paid_tweet_about_products.html
Who is helping the celebrities
http://ad.ly
Ad.ly is the new social media company behind the celebrity tweets. They claim to “connect consumers to celebrities.” Over 5,000 celebrities and 150 companies use Ad.ly for a paycheck or to enhance a campaign.
Some celebrity tweeters have hundreds of thousands of followers who they influence on a daily basis. Is tweeting for money (without saying it) betraying our trust? I follow the Kardashians on twitter (I’m not going to lie) and after reading the Eonline.com article, I don’t know if their tweets are opinion or money driven.
Some celebrities have started using #ad at the end of their tweets. You may think that they are doing this out of their own goodwill to let their followers know that they are getting paid. Wrong. The Federal Trade Commission recently changed its "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”.
The FTC states that “Celebrities have a duty to disclose their relationships with advertisers when making endorsements outside the context of traditional ads, such as on talk shows or in social media.”
How is the FTC catching the online rule breakers? Well, unless someone is trolling the internet 24/7 not everyone will be caught. Some celebrities are still tweeting like this law is not in place. If they do know they don’t care because the fine is only 11,000 dollars which they can pay back in oh….2 or 3 tweets to their “fans.”
-Sara Alderman
Sources:
How I found out: http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/ask_the_answer_bitch/b160341_do_celebs_get_paid_tweet_about_products.html
Who is helping the celebrities
http://ad.ly
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